1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a derrick-like bed lift apparatus, and more particularly to a portable motorized bed lift for enabling a disabled or invalid person who is normally prone on a bed to achieve a sitting position with his upper body over his hips without human assistance so that a patient can leave the bed for one purpose or another.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many people who spend most, if not all, of each day of their lives lying in a prone position on a bed. These people often feel totally helpless since they must call upon others for help in rising, going to the bathroom, getting into and out of wheelchairs and the like. It is critical, both from a physical and a psychological standpoint, that these people not be made to feel helpless. It is very important that they be able to do simple things for themselves such as, for example, rising to a sitting position from a prone position without the outside intervention of another human being.
Many of these people have severe disabilities such as the loss of hip bones, severe deterioration of muscles, and the like. Most such patients can maintain a balance once they are in a sitting position by locking the joints of their legs and or arms. From this position, the patient can get out of bed and slide into a wheelchair or the like to go to the bathroom, to their favorite TV seat, into an automobile, and the like.
In order to aid such patients in attaining a sitting position, the proper type of lift is a generally horizontal pull and vertical lift of the shoulders and upper torso to a position which substantially distributes the person's upper body weight over the persons hips. The prior art has recognized this problem but has failed to achieve any type of solution. While various bed lifts are known in the art, they usually involve some type of seat apparatus which the severely disabled person simply cannot get into without outside human assistance.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,473 which issued on June 14, 1983 to Donald F. Gettner for a PATIENT HANDLER discloses a chair-type lift apparatus which can be placed in either a sitting or a prone position. It has support assemblies for use in maintaining the patient handler in a given position so that it can be moved to different locations when being used by a patient. However, in all such instances, a severely disabled or injured person cannot get himself into the patient handler without the assistance of one or more third parties. Actually, the patient handler is designed for use in moving the patient about after he is placed in the chair or prone handler position, and not to enable the patient to do anything by himself.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,228 issued on Dec. 28, 1976 to Dale H. Thomas for an INVALID LIFTING AND WALKING DEVICE. This patent teaches a derrick-like assembly which is motorized by electric batteries and which is used to enable an invalid to lift himself to a standing position and walk about by propelling the apparatus with him. The hoist is not designed for lifting a prone person out of the bed but only for aiding a standing person to walk about. It is designed so that the patient, by himself, cannot even reach the controls when in the prone position, and again, third party assistance is required for manipulating the patients body to a standing position and arranging the harness or straps about him so that he can walk about.
Still further, patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 1,450,950 which issued on Apr. 10, 1923 and U.S. Pat. No. 1,641,388 which issued on Sept. 2, 1927, both to S. S. Jenkins for an INVALID LIFTER AND CARRYING APPARATUS cannot be used by a patient without outside assistance. One teaches a chair-type apparatus while the other teaches a bed-type apparatus, and in both, the patient must be initially placed on the lift or carrier by third parties and cannot assume this position on his own.
Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,366 issued on Nov. 27, 1984 to Curtis A. Koontz for an INVALID TRANSFER DEVICE. This patent teaches a transfer device for carrying an individual and again, it utilizes a seat and harness assembly into which the patient cannot climb of his own volition but must be assisted into the chair and harness by outside human intervention. Once in place, the device is designed to transfer or move the patient from one location, to another but it is not designed in aiding the handicapped or disabled person in initially rising from a prone position on a bed to the sitting position.
Therefore, it can be readily seen that while the prior art recognizes the problem of building both the muscles and the self confidence of a prone patient by enabling him to lift himself to a sitting position with the weight of his upper body substantially over his hips without the assistance of another human being; and the present invention fills this long-felt need by providing such an apparatus while avoiding the various problems of the prior art.
The prior art does not teach any apparatus which aids a patient both psychologically and physically by enabling the patient himself, without outside human interference, to be able to raise himself or herself by using only a lift apparatus from a prone position to a sitting position. Furthermore, from this position, the patient can lock his muscles or the like and slide off of the bed into his wheelchair or other carrier in order to go to the bathroom, to his favorite chair, to eat, or to otherwise enjoy a more normal existence without requiring constant supervision and assistance from other humans.
While many of the lifts of the prior art are designed to lift a patient, most appear to be designed to lift a patient after he has been placed in some type of seat or bed-like arrangement and then move him from one place to another. The prior art does not seem to teach a device merely for enabling a patient to rise from a prone to a sitting position with the lift apparatus being stationery and not being used for any other purpose such as transporting the now-sitting patient from one location to another, from one bed to another, or the like.